coppernose-5-june-3-2013

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Comment by Dean Nalezny on June 5, 2013 at 4:56am

Great fish Walt!

Comment by chris kowaleski on June 4, 2013 at 11:43pm

Walt, all I remember is the hooks being a tad rusty and that the fish hammered the bait. I don't recall the fish looking too terrible either. And like everyone else has said, with my time of using jigs, I don't remember the last time a fish swallowed the hook to where i couldn't get it out. I would use a whole or half night crawler on a 1/32nd jig head.

Comment by Walt Foreman on June 4, 2013 at 8:44pm

I thought about using jigs yesterday, but the bluegill at the pond we were fishing are almost impossible to catch on any sort of artificials - jigs that I do great with on multiple other ponds on the property, for instance, go without a touch in this pond - so I was worried that the clients wouldn't catch any fish (bad).  And, I would have done as Tony and Jim do and simply presented the live bait on a small jig, but the presentation we were catching them on was a weightless one, just a worm with no added weight, and in my experience, especially with very large bluegill, when they're going for this presentation, a little weight can mean a lot fewer bites.

The plan for next time is circle hooks only if we use live bait.  And, I may try some new presentations with jigs.  One thing's for sure: my time fishing live bait with regular J-hooks, in these ponds at least, is now in the past tense.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on June 4, 2013 at 8:07pm

I find the sickle hooks extremely effective for hooking/holding fish when a jig is used in a steady or slow retrieve. For the bottom twitching efforts I sometimes miss the strike altogether, but I have never deep-hooked a fish with the sickles on the Auto at 1/32 oz. The 1/80 oz Autos...well, gills do take that one deep. That's why I like the larger 1/32 oz profiles.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 4, 2013 at 1:10pm

I've promote circle hooks aggressively, and also debarbed, as I purchase large quantity in a relatively cheaper prices. If I can get a good deal for the ones without barb, I purchase that instead. No matter where I go, I provide circle hooks for the people around me to use. Just like my last outing to the local lake, I brought with me plenty of live baits, enough circle hooks #6 and #8 to provide to an army with constant replacement. Rather than using pliers to remove the hooks, the hooks easily and naturally come out with ease. Even with the hooks inside the fish's mouth, simply place them into the bucket, slack the line, and let them wiggle around a bit, and the hooks came out with ease.

Jig wise, I use circle hooks with a bit of trout splitshots when I can. Otherwise, I bend my J-hooks into something like the sickle hooks, until LedHed pointed out something already has already been created in a preform. Now, I'm a fan of circle and sickle hooks. Gut hook for circle hook is considered as rare. Now for the sickle hook..experimenting. J-hooks, 1 out of every 30 or so.

Comment by Tony Livingston on June 4, 2013 at 12:56pm

I do almost the same as Jim in that I seldom use a bare hook anymore. If I'm fishing live bait, I tend to tie on a 1/64 jighead to present my offering. It does seem to reduce deep hooking episodes, and I just prefer the horizontal presentation most of the time.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on June 4, 2013 at 12:27pm

To prevent deep-hooking, and with aggressive fish, I have had good luck with suspending a 1/32 oz jig below a float tipped with some sort of bait...waxie, worm, etc. Seems the head of the jig somewhat prevents a quick inhaling of the whole package, and almost all fish are easily released. There are exceptions, as some will be deep hooked, but not many. Nothing new here, but I have diverted from a total live bait offering to a tipped jig when I run into deep hooking issues, and it uauslly prevents much of that.

Comment by Walt Foreman on June 4, 2013 at 12:26pm

That's encouraging, Chris.  Were you able to get any sense of how long they had had the hooks, i.e. were they rusted at all?  Did the fish look thinner than usual or adversely affected in some way?  All info is good info.

Comment by chris kowaleski on June 4, 2013 at 7:12am

That's a heck of a fish walt! Also, I've definitely heard both sides of the deep hooking debate, but since I've been fishing the river here all the time and due to it's high fishing pressure, I've caught fish that have had hooks about 6 times the size of the hooks we all probably use stuck in their throats, and they were still doing alright.

Comment by Walt Foreman on June 4, 2013 at 6:54am

I hope you're right, Jacob!

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